Japanese mayors to push anti-atomic bid

The mayors of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki say they will push for the elimination of nuclear weapons at an upcoming conference in New York.

Tadatoshi Akiba and Tomihisa Taue are also scheduled to join a march organized by a group of peace activists on the sidelines of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.

Taue says abolishing nuclear weapons is essential for safeguarding security in the international community.

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.

The atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of civilians. Three days later, as Japan was still trying to comprehend the devastation, the United States struck again, dropping the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000-166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000-80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.